It’s always good to see when someone uses our product and see the value it brings and can bring to users and the team. Emark Analytics is a prototype of a proactive and creative team willing to try and explore all interesting products. They have implemented Inphinity Forms, the Qlik native write-back extension, into their own internal processes and even more are in the pipeline.
Let’s get inspired on how they improved their processes by allowing users to take actions directly where the data is – in Qlik Sense applications – thanks to Inphinity Forms write-back extension:
No more excels and their consolidation! Single source of truth in the same Qlik Sense app as all related analytics.
The transparent and secure process directly in Qlik Sense connects data from different sources – worklogs from JIRA, sales data from ZOHO, and manual inputs from managers.
Enrich data from core systems by manual inputs in Qlik instead of creating new excel files on the server: rates to JIRA issues, purchase costs to ZOHO sales orders.
I couldn’t imagine how much context people wanted to add to their analyses until we showed them it’s an option.
Solution 1: Capacity planning
Challenge:
Standardized capacity planning process with centralized trustworthy data source about planned capacity for each consultant and stage of the deal (ordered, reserved, lead). All data should be standardized and clean – ready to be used for analyzing ongoing and upcoming projects and identifying available capacities. Data source: Manual inputs based on weekly internal meetings with consultants.
Solution:
EMARK has developed its own Qlik application with Forms input extension. Thanks to it, all data is centralized and saved in the format needed for further analyses. The responsible person selects specific team members and assign his/her planned capacity to specific project with the exact information about the stage (probability of realization) – ordered/reserved/lead. For tracking the whole information, text notes can be added, as well. Thanks to the full changelog, the whole process can be analyzed to identify and avoid the most common issues, such as assigning incorrect stage to projects.
Forms is really a great tool, because with it it’s very simple to manage team capacity. In few clicks I have an overview about the actual workload of each developer and I can easily plan new upcoming projects. Then I just use these data for team performance analysis. It’s awesome.
Biggest values:
Single source of truth editable right in the Qlik Sense app used for analyzing related data.
Solution 2: Bonus system – inputs, targets & review
Challenge:
Transparent bonus system managed by different people according to their roles and responsibilities. Calculation of the final bonus is based on personlevel inputs that are objective (multiple targets, their fulfillment, rate) as well as evaluated by the team leader (effectivity, customer satisfaction…). Data source: Manual inputs of managers, worklogs from JIRA, sales data from ZOHO.
Solution:
Several Forms instances have been used for the purpose of building the whole remuneration system. Information about each developer with his/her targets (billable FTE, time spent on presales activities, education…) are collected via Forms. Everyone has read access to his/her targets and no one else’s. During the bonus review, team leader evaluates qualitative criteria about the consultant’s outputs (customer satisfaction, output quality…). By adding quantitative information from JIRA system to these manual inputs and targets, the final bonus can be calculated right in the Qlik Sense app. For sales team, Forms is used as centralized data source for targets which fulfillment is evaluated by using data from ZOHO loaded to the Qlik Sense app.
Thanks to forms we were able to significantly simplify the process of managing our delivery team. We have all the necessary information to display and complete on one Qlik page without the need to switch between several tools. Thus, we were able to move our Qlik to a higher level.
Biggest values:
Up-to-date data about targets fulfillment, transparency and simplicity of the whole process.
Solution 3: Additional data: rates to JIRA issues, purchase costs to ZOHO sales orders
Challenge:
Enrich data from core systems by manual inputs in Qlik instead of creating new excel files on the server: rates to JIRA issues, purchase costs to ZOHO sales orders.
Data source:
Manual inputs, data about ongoing and upcoming projects from JIRA, sales orders connectivity to JIRA and associative data model, responsible person can simply choose specific project, customer or order and assign agreed rate to the issue instead of creating new excel file and copying issue’s key there. Batch update enables the user to assign the same value to multiple issues within the selection on one click. Thanks to the change log, rates can be analyzed from time perspective, as well. The same logic is used for adding purchase costs to sales orders from ZOHO.
There is no easier way to manage project MD rates, especially when there are more of them for specific types of work. Just set the rate for specific Jira issues and that’s it – I can see the comprehensive overview of budget spending over time.
Biggest values:
Time savings, data quality and minimizing human errors.
Next Forms use cases in EMARK’s processes
Attendance register for sales team
– Forms will be used for simple inputs about their other activities, such as sick days or vacation
Cash-flow management
– backlog about payment-related behaviour of partners and customers for better planning
– modification of due dates for making cash-flow plan more realistic
– move cash-flow planning to Qlik Sense app with full log and access to all relevant people
Human resources
– overview of technical and soft skills of team members for better allocation them to projects
– enablement management – overview of employees goals, their fulfillment, vision…
– onboarding process – process checklist, centralized information about each employee
Having more time, there would be a Forms object on every second sheet (at least that’s what my users would have me do :D).
